The present invention relates to a process for manufacturing an array of shaped elements, such as optical elements and semiconductor elements.
Optical elements (i.e. shaped bodies of inorganic or organic material and faceted along at least one plane, the shaped bodies reflecting, refracting, and absorbing light and/or conducting heat) and semiconductor elements having at least one dimension of less than a few millimeters are currently fabricated by a number of processes. These processes include molding, lapping individual elements, casting the optical elements from a sol-gel followed by sintering, microreplication, and processes using surface tension or shrinkage to form desired shapes. Of these processes, only lapping allows the production of precise shapes from refractory or crystalline materials. However, lapping is one of the slowest and most expensive processes for producing a large number of optical elements, especially for ceramics with high thermal conductivity, such as diamond, silicon carbide, and sapphire. In addition, individually lapped shaped elements must be handled individually, which is difficult.